Cupid's Puppet
by MiniSparky
Summary: Crawler's back and he's threatened to kill lsomeone the birds love. Will they figure out who in time and will they be able to save that person?
1. Default Chapter

I didn't create the characters I'm just writing about them.

CUPID'S PUPPET

It was a cold rainy day for all those who had gathered in the New Gotham Cemetery for Wade Brickstone's funeral. Helena and Dinah were trying to comfort Barbara who was mourning the loss of her beloved Wade. As the minister was finishing up, the people started walking up to Wade's family to give their condolences.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Dinah asked Barbara as she continued the people walking towards Mrs. Brickstone.

"I'm doing this for Wade." Helena and Dinah watched as Barbara made her way to Wade's mother.

"Somehow everything seems more real now then it did before. I just can't believe he's really gone." Dinah looked at Helena and saw her teary eyes. "Are you ok?"

"This is all my fault. I can't even begin to imagine how hard this must be for Barbara."

"Helena, this wasn't your fault. We've been over this. You are not responsible for Wade's death."

"It's not that easy."

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

"Mrs. Brickstone?"

"Barbara!"

"I am so very sorry for your loss."

"Thank you. It means so much that you came."

"Of course. Wade was an amazing guy. I really cared for him."

"I just don't understand how this happened!"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

The school bell rang and Dinah made her way to her seat. Miss Andrews asked everyone to take their seats. "We have a new student joining us today. Everyone, please welcome Cade Mathews."

I tall brunette wearing black jeans and a t-shirt with a chain around his waist walked in.

He looked around the classroom and as he made eye contact with Dinah for a split second, her heart skipped a beat.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

"Hey Dinah!" Dinah turned around and saw her best friend, Gabby catching up.

"Hey Gabby, what's up?"

"Did you meet the new kid. He's got this whole punker thing going on. I think his name is Cade." She saw the blush come on Dinah's cheeks at the mention of his name. "Oh, I didn't know you had a thing for punker boys." She smirked at her.

"I don't!"

"Yeah right. I saw that look."

Dinah was about to ask 'what look?' when Cade walked up to her. "Dinah, right?

"Um.. yeah, yeah. That's me, Dinah."

"Hi, I'm Cade." He offered his hand and Dinah shook it.

"Hi!" There was a long silence as she felt herself drawn to Cade's dark blue eyes. Then suddenly she was broken out of whatever spell she had been under by Gabby's words.

"And I'm Gabby."

"Hi Gabby, " Cade smiled at her.

Then Gabby directed her attention back to Dinah. "So are we still on for the movies tonight?"

"Totally. I haven't had a night off in so long."

"It was Great to meet you Cade. Catch ya later D," Gabby said with a wave then turned to wink at Dinah. Dinah watched Gabby walk away. She looked back at Cade and felt herself being pulled into his eyes again.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Late after noon in the clock tower, Dinah was about to head out when Barbara caught up with her.

"Dinah? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the movies with Gabby. Remember? I have the afternoon off. I'll be back later for sweeps.

"Hey, do you know where Helena is?"

"I don't know. Maybe at the park making out with Jesse!' Dinah started giggling.

"Making out?" Barbara felt like she was missing.

"Yeah, it's what couples do these days?"

"_Couples_?" Now she knew she was missing something.

"Oh! You didn't know?"

"How did this happen? _When_ did this happen?" Barbara felt left out and a little mad at Helena that she hadn't told her this.

"Sometime after the New Gotham fashion show."

"That's almost two weeks. How comeI didn't know anything about it?"

"Maybe she thought that this wasn't the right time to tell you something like that. After all you're still mourning Wade. Plus I think she still feels a little guilty about that."

"She shouldn't. She's not responsible. I don't believe this. Helena and Jesse are actually going out?"

"Yeah. But we all knew something was bound to happen between those two sooner or later." They both start laughing.

"That's true."

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

As Helena served the already drunken customer another glass of beer she thought to herself: _Kind of ironic how during my day job I get people drunk and during my night job, I get to beat the crap out of people that are doing crime who most of the time happen to be drunk!_

"Uh miss? Can I get a refill?" asked the guy at the bar that was so drunk he could barely keep his head up.

"Actually I think I should call you a cab." Leonard sees the young bartender trying to chase away customers and rushes in.

"Helena, this young man has had a very bad day and he wants to drown his sorrows with alcohol and guess what? This is bar, we sell alcohol! Why would you drive the customer away?" He turned to point at the guy when they see him slumping over the bar unconscious.

"Just thought I'd save you the trouble of cleaning him up." Helena winked at him and walked to the counter to another customer.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Helena changed after her shift and walked out of the bar. She stopped in her tracks as she saw Jesse leaning against his car holding a single red rose.

"Hey," he said as he got up and walked towards her.

"Back at ya," she replied with a smile. He handed her the rose and kissed her on the cheek.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Back in the clock tower Barbara had been grading tests when the phone rang. "Hello?"

"Miss Gordon? This is Gabby. Is Dinah there?"

"Wasn't she suppose to meet you at the movies?"

"Yeah, about an hour ago but she never showed up."

Barbara's heart sank. What could've happened to her? "Thank you for calling Gabby. I'll try to find out where she is." She hung up the phone and rolled straight towards the computers. "Dinah? Dinah, come in." When she didn't get a response from her young protégé she contacted Helena. "Helena, report to the clock tower immediately!" She started tracking Dinah's signal and it ended up being at the New Gotham Park. "Don't tell me she ran into a cute boy and decided to go to the park and make out." Barbara just wondered out loud.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened and Helena came rushing in. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

"That was fast."

"Your voice sounded urgent. Now what's wrong?"

"Oh Dinah's not answering her comm."

"Well it's her night off. She probably just turned it off so you wouldn't interrupt her partying all night long. So why were you trying to reach her?"

"She was suppose to meet Gabby at the movies an hour ago but she never did."

"Oh."

Barbara just notices the rose in Helena's hand and a smirk comes on her face. "So who's the rose from?"

"Oh. Um...No one?

"Does this 'no one' by any chance happen to be a detective?"

"Oh, you know?"

"Yeah Dinah told me."

"Speaking of, I should probably go try to find her."

"Oh yeah. Her signal is at the New Gotham Park."

"She probably met a cute guy and went there to make out with him." Barbara chuckled. They had been working together for so long that they had started to even think the same way.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

_I can't believe this is happening! I can't believe he's evil. Why do all cute guys have to be evil? And I can't believe I almost fell for him. I can't believe I'm kidnapped! _Dinah struggled to free herself from the chair she was tied to but couldn't. She was also blindfolded so she had no idea that she was in an abandoned building. Her head hurt from the rock Cade had hit her with at the park or at least it felt like it had been hit by a rock! Her mind was too foggy and she couldn't concentrate, she'd probably been drugged. She had been on her way to meet gabby when she'd ran into Cade.

The door to the abandoned building opened and Cade walked in. "Sorry Dinah. I don't really have a choice. I have my orders."

"From who?"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Huntress had gone to the park to look for Dinah. "Oracle come in!"

"I copy you Huntress. What's going on?"

"I found Dinah's comm. set. She's not here. I'm worried."

"You should be," said a very familiar voice from behind her. Huntress turned around and was stunned to see who was standing there: The Crawler. Although a more menacing looking one.

"You! You're suppose to be locked up in Arkham. How did you get out?"

"Now that's not important. What is important is that I'm out and as I recall we have some unfinished business." He started walking toward her.

"Where's Dinah? If she's hurt, you're going to pay for it!" Helena walked back as he walked forward. Something about him seemed different. He was different than the last time they met. He seemed more powerful, more evil. It somehow scared her. Crawler noticed the fright in her eyes and started laughing. He stopped and looked at her.

"She's fine but not for long. So how are things going with the great detective? It _is _him you're falling in love with right?" A huge smirk came on his face. "I think I'll kill him first just to see your pain and then finish you off."

"I won't let you hurt him or anyone else!"

"How are you going to do that? You're already too late to save Dinah. Pretty soon you'll see everyone you love die and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why shouldn't I do this? I had everything I loved taken away from me. Tell me, why should anyone else be happy when I'm miserable?"

"Because the world doesn't revolve around you! You don't get to decide who gets to be happy and who gets to be miserable. Why should other people pay for something that happened to you?"

He got more frustrated by every word Helena spoke. "It's not about paying. It's about realizing the truth. Love doesn't bring happiness! All it brings is misery and pain! People need to understand that! _You_ need to understand that!"

"Just because you got burned doesn't mean you can play God with people's lives!"

" We'll see!"

"Huntress! I got a lead on Dinah's location," Oracle called over the comm.

"I don't have time for this but we'll meet again and until then you better crawl under a rock and stay there." Helena started running. Crawler started laughing.

"You can go to the rescue but you'll be too late. Or you'll be just in time to say Goodbye!"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Helena raced across the rooftops to the abandoned factory across town where one of Gibson's regulars had seen Dinah with a very shady teenage guy. Dinah had been going to Gibson's so often that almost every meta in town knew her.

"Are you ok?" Barbara asked over the comm. She had a hint of worry in her voice. She was worried about how Helena felt about facing the man that had almost killed her a year ago.

"I'm just great. What do you know about Crawler breaking out?" Helena tried to change the subject. She didn't want Barbara to know she was a little shaken.

"Apparently he didn't. He was released..." Barbara looked at the computer screen a little confused.

"Released? How did that happen?"

"A few moths ago he was transferred to a clinic out of town. And I'll give you three guesses as who assigned him there."

"Harley," Helena said with rage building up inside of her."

"Yeah, and this clinic isn't your normal rehab center. They were doing research on Metahuman!"

"Great! More people that want to kill us. All right I'm at the abandoned building. We'll continue this later, after we rescue Dinah."

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Ok, this is my first fanfic so plz r&r and let me know what u think.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been quiet for some time. Dinah was beginning to worry even more. She didn't have her comm. set on, so Barbara couldn't track her location. How were they going to find her? Had they even realized by now that she was gone? Her head was throbbing and she was getting anxious when suddenly she felt a familiar presence nearby and she began to relax.

"Looks like you could use some help," Helena said as she started untying Dinah.

"No, thanks. I'm actually enjoying being tied to a chair," Dinah replied with sarcasm.

Helena finished untying her and took off the blindfold.

"You ok, kid? You look.... drugged." Helena looked at Dinah's face and saw the dilated pupils and confused look.

"Maybe 'cause I am. Don't worry about me. Although there is someone we should be worried about. They guy that kidnapped me just got a call and had to go. He said he had to take care of someone and I have a feeling it's someone we know."

"Your feelings are probably right. Oracle?" Helena turned on her comm set as she motioned Dinah to get up and follow her out.

"I read you Huntress. Did you find Dinah?" Oracle's voice was very worried.

"Yeah I did. Is everything ok? You sound freaked out."

Before Oracle had a chance to answer her the comm set went dead.

"Oracle? Oracle? " A look of concern came upon Helena. It certainly wasn't like Barbara to just go off comms. It fact she never had before.

"What's going on?" Witnessing Helena's expression Dinah started to get worried.

"We have to get to the clock tower. Oracle's not responding."

With that they bolted towards the clock tower and what they found wasn't what they were expecting. It felt like the elevator was taking forever to go up. When the doors slowly opened all they could see at first was black. Helena's catlike eyes adjusted to the dark quickly and she gasped at what she saw. She was about to run towards something when the lights went on and Dinah also saw what Helena had: Barbara and Alfred unconscious, beat, and tied up on the floor. Before either could react to the scene someone from behind them started clapping. Helena and Dinah swiftly turned around and saw Crawler standing there. "You came! But you're too late!"

"Oh my God! What are you doing here?" Dinah said shocked. From what Cade had said she was expecting to find him here. He had said he needed to take care of someone. If he didn't hurt Alfred and Barbara, then _who_ did he have to take care of?

"Oh I'm sorry. Where you expecting someone else?" Crawler said to Dinah as he looked her up and down. "He got to you didn't he?" He gave her a creepy smile.

"What did you do to them?" Helena's eyes hastily changed and she charged into him and with a swift motion he picked her up and threw her into the wall. Dinah was taken by at his strength. He was a lot stronger than the last time they had fought. She hurried to Helena's side and tried to help her up.

"Why are you doing this to us?" Dinah asked as she tried to figure out what was going on. Why had the crawler come back to hurt them?

"Because I can. Because nobody can stop me. I can do whatever the hell I feel like with people's lives." He started to walk towards them. Dinah looked at Helena who was saken by the hit and was bleeding from the forehead.

"And what do you get from watching them hurt? Pleasure?" Helena said as she pushed Dinah behind her for protection.

"No, of course not. I'm just trying to help them learn a lesson. What kind of a man do you think I am?" He was getting very close to them and he wasn't the slightest bit scared. He made a fist and was about to punch Helena when Dinah used her telekinesis to send him flying into a wall.

"You're not a man, you're an animal! No, you're worst then animal, you're....trash!" Dinah blurted out as she came out from behind Helena and started tossing Crawler around with her mind. "And no offense but if I were a parent I wouldn't want you as my child's teacher." She had thrown Crawler into so many walls then he was starting to lose consciousness.

Helena rushed to Barbara and Alfred's side and started untying them. She rushed to get the emergency medical kit and used smelling salts on Barbara and Alfred. Bu the time they woke up Crawler was lying unconscious on the other side of the room. Helena and Dinah helped Barbara into her chair. The girls quickly explained everything to Barbara and tied up Crawler.

"Thank God you two are ok!" Barbara couldn't stop saying that, like it was a miracle that they had.

"You have so little faith in us Oracle, "Dinah said with a small smile that disappeared when she took a closer look at Barbara's expression. "What aren't you telling us?"

"The clinic that he was transferred to, it was doing experiments on Metahumans. They were messing with there genes," Barbara explained to Helena and Dinah.

"You don't by any chance mean the ones that they wear do you?" Dinah tried to lighten the mood but was obviously failing.

Alfred walked in the room holding a tray with glasses of lemonade in it. "I believe everyone could use a drink right about now." He gave everyone a glass.

"Fortunately for us, Crawler didn't know about Dinah's telekinesis. So he wasn't prepared for it. And may I just say, you totally kicked his ass girl!" Helena smiled and gave her a friendly punch in the arm.

"Thanks but I don't think we should be celebrating yet. Remember I said the guy that kidnapped me said he had to take care of someone? Well he's not here and he wasn't the one who hurt Barbara and Alfred which makes me think he's still out there and about to hurt someone we care about. But who?"

A look of terror came to Helena as she figured out who that person would be.

"Oh no!" Before anyone had time to react, Helena rushed to the balcony and jumped down.


	3. Chapter 3

New Gotham Police Department

Jesse had decided to head back to work after her date with Helena got caught short. He had started doing some paper work when he was interrupted by a teenage guy.

"Detective Jesse Reese?" he asked him.

Jesse looked up at him and answered "Who's asking?"

"My name is Cade. I'm a friend of Dinah's. She's in danger and I need your help. Please come with me and hurry!" With that Cade ran out the door. Jesse was surprised at the young man_. If Dinah's in trouble Helena and Barbara would've told me. How'd he know about me anyways? _After wrestling the idea of this being a trap (which his mind was 110% agreeing with) against all better judgment he ran after Cade.

Clock tower

"Huntress! Huntress, come in. This is no time to be playing games like this! Oh you are going to give me a heart attack!" Barbara had been stressing since Helena left. Her comm. was turned off and they couldn't contact her.

"Barbara you should really calm down. You're turning blue," Dinah had been lost in her own thoughts, mostly about Cade, but once in a while she tuned in to see how things were going and to calm down Barbara.

"Miss Barbara I think you should listen to Miss Dinah. You stressing is not going to get us anywhere. Maybe you should try contacting Detective Reese. Perhaps he knows something." Right after Alfred said those words everyone fell quite as they figured out what Helena already knew.

"So Jesse's the one in trouble?" Dinah asked somewhat relieved that they had made progress and somewhat worried that the person in danger was Jesse.

"I think that's the first time Helena figured something out before me!" Barbara said as she dialed Jesse's number. After a few rings it went on the voicemail and they began to get worried.

"You don't think he's –" Dinah began but was cut off by Alfred.

"Gone to sleep? I doubt it Miss Dinah it's only 11 pm," Alfred said so she wouldn't start worrying. Besides Det. Reese had gotten out of many difficult situations before, he should be able to handle a teenager.

"So what's the plan?" Dinah asked Barbara who was busily typing away at his computer.

"I got a location on Helena. She's at the Police Station. She's probably talking to Jesse right now!" Barbara was a little relieved until Helena's worried voice filled the clock tower, startling everyone.

Helena: "Oracle!"

Barbara: "What is it Huntress?"

Helena: "I figured out who it was Dinah's kidnapper was going to hurt."

Barbara: "So did we. Jesse."

Helena: "I'm at the Police Station but he's not here. His coworkers say he left a while ago with a teenage punk."

Dinah: "That definitely fits his description."

Helena: "How would you know? You were blindfolded."

Dinah: "Oh... um... I saw his face... before he blindfolded me!"

Helena: "Ok.... So what's the plan?"

Barbara: "If you can just wait a few more seconds I will be able to get a location on Reese using his cell phone signal... got it! He's at the park."

Helena: "OK. Huntress out."

Sorry it took so long to update but I had a writers block. Thanks to all the ppl that read and reviewed my story! And sorry about all the spelling and grammar mistakes I'm usually in a hurry when I'm typing.


	4. chapter 4

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this story! This chapter is dedicated to you guys!  
  
A few minutes later at the Park  
  
Helena arrived at the park and she found Jesse unconscious on a bench. She rushed to his side. "Jesse! Jesse wake up!" Her eyes changed into fighting mode as she sensed someone behind her. She quickly turned around and stopped the attacker from hitting her with a metal pipe. She took the pipe fro him and pushed him into a tree. He hit the tree and fell on the ground. Helena looked him up and down and said, "Looks like a punk, fights like a punk, " He tried to stand up but his head spin and he fell back down. 'Oh yeah, he's definitely a punk! Oracle?"  
  
"What's happening Huntress?" came Barbara's voice over the comm. set.  
  
"I found the punk." Helena heard a groan from the bench, She walked towards it and say Jesse open his eyes. "Have a nice nap detective?" She had on one of her famous smirks.  
  
"Yeah right!" He rubbed his neck and stood up. He looked at Cade who was sitting next to tree looking at the ground. "So what are you gonna do with him?"  
  
"I dunno yet. Oracle what do we do with the punk?"  
  
Meanwhile back at the clock tower  
  
"Don't be too hard on him!" Dinah just yelled out.  
  
Barbara and Alfred stared at her and Helena's voice came over the speaker, "What? He knocked you unconscious and kidnapped you and worked with Crawler to kill us and now u don't want anything to happen to him?"  
  
"Well, he doesn't seem like the criminal type. I bet Crawler threatened him to help him!"  
  
At the Park Helena was deep in thought. Something seemed very odd about what Dinah said. Then she remembered that Crawler said 'He got to you didn't he?' at the clock tower. _Could it be possible he meant this punk? Is Dinah in love with this kid?_ She walked up to the Cade and grabbed his hand and pulled him up. Jesse walked up behind. "Where you working with Crawler?"  
  
Cade just nodded his head and refused to look up at Helena.  
  
"Why?" Jesse asked.  
  
"He killed my parents and kidnapped my younger sister. He said if I didn't work with him he would kill her."  
  
"Do you have any idea where he could be keeping her?" Helena asked  
  
"No" he replied and shook his head. Tears were beginning to form in his eyes. "I never wanted to hurt Dinah or any of you guys, I swear!"  
  
"It's ok. Calm down. We'll figure out something." Helena patted his shoulder.  
  
Back at the clock tower  
  
As soon as Dinah had heard about Cade's sister a thought had come into her mind. The only on who knew her whereabouts was Crawler and they still had him tied up and unconscious at the clock tower. She walked up to him cautiously and gently touched his hand. Flashes of Cade's parent's death came into her mind. And then she saw a little girl who she assumed was Cade's sister. Crawler was dragging her into a white truck. She saw that it was an ice cream truck. Then she saw a flash of a street sign. 'Rose Hill' She removed her hand and rushed towards Barbara and Alfred. "I know where he was keeping her. In an Ice Cream truck on Rose Hill!"  
  
"How do you know that?" Barbara asked.  
  
"I read his mind. How else?"  
  
"Ok we'll discuss your punishment for that later. Helena? We have a location on his sister. She's in an ice cream truck on Rose Hill."  
  
At the park  
  
"An ice cream truck on Rose Hill?" Helena repeated.  
  
Jesse looked at her and said "Wait, hold on! I'm remembering something about that. Yesterday someone dropped off a 6 year old girl. They said they found her wondering on Rose Hill."  
  
"Where is she now?" Cade asked happily.  
  
"She's at the Children's ward in New Gotham Hospital. She's fine though so don't worry."  
  
Cade's face lit up.  
  
"So now the question is what to do with you." Helena crossed her arms and looked t the boy. 


End file.
